The demolition was reported in one of the Minneapolis Heritage
Preservation Commission’s “Demo Memos.” When I saw the
photo of 4501 in the report, I assumed the City paid for
the demolition, but it’s possible that the owners, the
Simpsons of Minnehaha Parkway, paid for it themselves.

In July 2008 the HPC was asked to consider 4501 for historic designation…which might have protected the property from demolition. They said “NO!”

Why the commission said “NO!” to historic designation when their
staff person said “YES!” is a mystery….except that this follows
a trend in Minneapolis of rich folks wanting to build their own
custom designed palaces in very nice locales next to other
rich folks.

So down with the ratty old, shack even though
it’s 100 years old and designed by an architect…it’s junk
because it was not custom made for ME!ME!ME!
So up with the supersized plywood palazzo mcmansion
designed just for ME!ME!ME!

This is happening all over the city, Linden Hills, Lowry Hill, Lake of
the Isles and now Lake Harriet Parkway.

Now one might argue that the wealthy of ages past have always
built whatever enormous structure they wanted with no regard
to the character of their neighborhood or whether the structure
was appropriate of not.

I argue these demolitions are arrogant, destroying irreplaceable
historic buildings and a waste of resources.